Consumers have come to enjoy accessing media content on-demand on non-television devices, such as mobile phones or tablet computers, by streaming media content over the internet or downloading media content to the device. Consumers also enjoy watching television broadcasts, either in real time or through digital video recorders (DVRs) whereby broadcasts can be recorded and viewed at a later time.
However, it has only recently been common to merge the two media consumption models by allowing recorded content from one device to be streamed or downloaded to another device due to concerns about digital rights management. For instance, equipment such as cable boxes or DVRs have only recently allowed media content, either real time broadcasts or recorded content, to be streamed or downloaded to non-television devices. Although many consumers would enjoy the flexibility of being able to choose whether to watch a live or recorded television broadcast on a non-television device, such as if they are not at home but would still like to watch a particular program on their mobile phone while on the go, most cable boxes and DVRs encrypt their content or have other digital rights management schemes in place to prevent unauthorized copying or transfer of media content.
Some systems are under development that would allow copy-protected content from one device can be accessed with authorization on a secondary device, without allowing unrestricted copying of the media content. For example, Digital Transmission Content Protection over Internet Protocol (DTCP-IP) is a scheme that provides for copy protection of media content as it is moved from one device to another device over a data connection. In a DTCP-IP system, a consumer can record television content on a DVR, then stream that recorded content to a smartphone or other client device over a wireless internet connection while maintaining the content's copy protection and preventing unauthorized copying.
The DVR or other home media server can use DRM credentials, such as DTCP-IP certificates and/or keys, to protect outgoing media content, such that only client devices that have copies of those same DRM credentials can play back the media content.
In some situations and/or embodiments, there can be security and/or financial considerations in providing DRM credentials to client devices or home media servers. By way of a non-limiting example, it can be desired that DRM credentials only be provided to client devices that have previously been registered by a client authorization server, so that unregistered client devices can be impeded from copying DRM protected media content. By way of another non-limiting example, in some situations the DRM credentials may need to be purchased from another entity, such as the Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator (DTLA), and to limit costs it can be desired that DRM credentials only be purchased for client devices that have been previously registered by a client authorization server.